In the final hours before a deadline to approve or veto legislation expired, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday evening signed into law what\u2019s dubbed the Plug And Play Solar Act.<\/p>\n
Senate Bill 868 is designed to pave the way for California consumers and renters to hook up portable installations on places like patios and balconies to help reduce their electricity bills.<\/p>\n
RELATED:\u00a0Which California bills has Newsom signed? Search our 2026 tracker<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThis technology is very important and very powerful and what this bill does is eliminate the massive barrier to people using plug-in solar,\u201d the bill\u2019s author, Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, said at a Bay Area news conference Thursday.<\/p>\n The new law will allow consumers to buy small-scale, portable solar panels from retail stores such as Home Depot or Costco without having to fill out paperwork for an interconnection agreement with their local utility.<\/p>\n It applies to devices as large as 1,200 watts and goes into effect Jan. 1 \u2014 but that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean all customers can start taking advantage of SB 868 as soon as the beginning of next year.<\/p>\n In that respect, it\u2019s a bit complicated.<\/p>\n To meet the safety requirements of a provision within SB 868, devices must be certified to meet Underwriters Laboratory 3700<\/a> standards or an equivalent national testing lab.<\/p>\n But no system on the market meets that standard yet.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know that there are at least two very large manufacturers with products currently going through the certification standards process at UL,\u201d said Bernadette Del Chiaro, senior vice president for California Environmental Working Group<\/a>, a prime supporter of SB 868. \u201cThey expect to pass and have a product certified by the end of this year, which means it\u2019s just a matter of time, a short amount of time, before they have actual things boxed up and the kits for sale to California consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n Cora Stryker, co-founder of Bright Saver, a nonprofit that sells solar kits to customers at low, at-cost prices, said consumers in California will need an electrician to install their portable systems to meet UL\u2019s certification criteria.<\/p>\n If customers want to use a portable system that does not meet certification standards, they must first apply for an interconnection with the utility in their area. In the San Diego service territory, that would be San Diego Gas & Electric.<\/p>\n Stryker thinks the passage of SB 868 will make solar on patios and balconies ubiquitous.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is huge,\u201d she said, mentioning the sheer size of the market in California. \u201cWe estimate about 70% of Californians can\u2019t get any form of solar \u2026 It\u2019s the beginning of democratizing clean energy ownership. It\u2019s not the end of the road, but it\u2019s an absolutely monumental step forward for the whole nation, actually.\u201d<\/p>\n Kits for plug-in solar range in cost from\u00a0$300<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0more than $2,500<\/a>, depending on size. Each panel connects to a small microinverter, which converts the direct current (DC) electricity from the panels into the alternating current (AC) that homes use.<\/p>\n According to estimates from EnergySage<\/a>, a company that offers comparison pricing for clean energy products, customers in states like California with high electricity prices who use 600 kilowatt-hours can trim $40 to $50 on their monthly bills, depending on the system they buy.<\/p>\n \u201cSB 868 was, I\u2019ll be honest, a brutal fight with the utilities,\u201d Wiener said.<\/p>\n SDG&E and Pacific Gas & Electric came out against SB 868, as did two groups representing publicly funded power companies \u2014 including Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. They cited safety concerns.<\/p>\n \u201cWithout appropriate oversight, devices that feed electricity into a building\u2019s electrical system may inadvertently backfeed into the distribution grid,\u201d the\u00a0California Municipal Utilities Association<\/a>\u00a0said. \u201cThis creates potential hazards for line workers performing maintenance or responding to outages, who rely on established interconnection standards to ensure circuits are properly isolated and safe to work on.\u201d<\/p>\n To prevent electrical hazards and protect utility workers, the systems under SB 868 must automatically shut off within seconds if the electric grid goes down.<\/p>\n Before the bill headed to the floor of the California Assembly<\/a> for a vote in August, an amendment was added to SB 868 in August that sunsets the interconnection exemption on Jan. 1, 2030.<\/p>\n That irritated some supporters of the bill, but the Environmental Working Group said in a news release<\/a> that it still gives \u201cthe market four years to take off while giving the Legislature an opportunity to remove the sunset provision\u201d some time in the future.<\/p>\n According to fiscal analysis of SB 868, the new law will cost the California Public Utilities Commission $200,000 to $500,000 each year to fund.<\/p>\n Balcony solar has become\u00a0very popular in Germany<\/a>, with more than 4 million small-scale systems installed.<\/p>\n Utah became the first state<\/a> in the U.S. to make way for plug-in systems when it passed a law in March 2025. With the signing of SB 868, California is now the 10th state<\/a> to have portable solar laws on the books.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the final hours before a deadline to approve or veto legislation expired, Gov. 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